Partial support is requested for the 1989 Gordon Conference on "The Molecular Biology of Ciliated Protozoa", to be held August 14-18th at Colby-Sawyer College in New London, New Hampshire. The conference will bring together workers who are employing molecular techniques to study a variety of biological problems using ciliated protozoa as models. During the past dozen years there has been a revival of interest in the unicellular ciliated protozoa, prompted in part by the discoveries of self-splicing RNA, extensive DNA rearrangement, unusual use of the genetic code, specific telomeric structures, and membrane mutants in these organisms. Both platform and poster sessions that cover these topics, and other areas of active research, will be included in the conference in order to provide a means of rapidly disseminating unpublished research results and to provide an opportunity for workers in the field to meet and plan future areas of investigation. 135 foreign and domestic scientists will attend the conference. Participants will be selected based on the quality of the scientific contribution they will make to the meeting and so as to adequately represent all areas of currently active research. In addition, we will seek to admit individuals from academic, industrial, and government laboratories, as well from a broad geographic distribution. Finally, we will seek active participation by both senior scientists and young investigators.